a remarkable man, taught drawing in that city as a science, and not simply as picture making. This competent master was, however, removed through the influence of an unsympathetic, ignorant committeeman, and so Baltimore lost the opportunity, else within reach, of anticipating the success of Boston by a quarter of a century. Mr. Minifie published his system of teaching, drawing, and perspective and shadows, which has long held its place as a recognized authority. About 1852 this work was adopted as one of the regular text-books, used in the South Kensington art schools of London, England, and which, it may be fairly assumed, Walter Smith studied; at least the underlying principles of the system of Professor Minifie and those of Professor Walter Smith are practically identical. As professor of drawing in the School of design of the Maryland institute in 1852-1854, Professor Minifie delivered and published three public addresses on drawing and design; in these the teaching of drawing as a regular study in the public schools was eloquently urged.

To one who remembered the ability and methods of Professor Minifie, and the work done by his pupils of the high school, as far back as 1848, the exhibition made of drawings by the Baltimore high school, in the Centennial exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, was pitiful indeed.

Cleveland, Ohio, seems to have been more fortunate than the cities whose experience has just been briefly recited. In 1849 drawing was put in the schools as a regular exercise, and after a few months was intrusted to the regular teachers of the public schools, who eventually found in the late Professor John Brainerd an enthusiastic instructor, who took such interest in their work that he followed them to the schools and aided them in teaching the pupils; in the end the professor was put in charge of the work in all the schools, and for several years remained with gratifying results. He published a manual for use in the schools. Subsequently Professor Brainerd was for years an examiner in the U. S. patent office in Washington.

In this brief summary of various sporadic efforts in diferent cities and communities to introduce drawing in the schools, it is clear that the desirability of general instruction of the school children in drawing was in the process of becoming a popular belief, and, in American communities, this is usually the precursor of legislative action.

While these efforts, as we have seen, had been confined to no single section or state, and, indeed, in some towns and cities drawing had already secured foothold in the schools. the movement in Boston, and in a degree through the state of Massachusetts, was more pronounced than elsewhere.

In this state certain studies which are required to be taught in all public schools are enumerated in the law, while certain other studies are recorded as permissible at the discretion of the school committee. Thus, the trend of the upward and onward direction in the progress of elementary education is indicated by the appearance of certain studies as "permissible."

In the law of 1860 "algebra, vocal music, drawing, physiology and hygiene" are thus recorded as permissible. This is believed to be the first legal recognition of drawing in this category. In 1869 the board of education is directed to prepare a plan for free instruction of men, women and children in mechanical drawing, applicable to all towns and cities of 5,000 inhabitants or more. In the law of 1870 "drawing" appears as a required study in all public schools, and "any city or town having more than 10,000 inhabitants shall annually make provision for giving free public instruction in industrial or mechanical drawing, either in day or evening schools under direction of the school committee."

The annual reports of the board of education of Massachusetts, about that time, show great interest in promoting the study of drawing, and later in developing technical industrial education with special reference to the manufacturing interests of the state.

In the report of 1870-71 "the Worcester county free

I

institute of industrial science" in the city of Worcester, incorporated in 1865, is highly praised and pointed out as the only school in the state where such an education can be obtained.

As already indicated, the history of the slow development of the artistic training of youth in this country closely resembled in its several stages that of its progress in England, though, happily, there is here no story of individual effort and failure quite so tragic as that of the unfortunate Haydon, though the story of the last days of Walter Smith in America, just before his return to his native country, where he was gladly welcomed to an honorable career, all too brief, owing to his untimely decease, is not one to be dwelt on by Americans with any especial pride. He brought rare and precious gifts to America, while to his splendid abilities as a great teacher, and to his contagious enthusiasm, which inspired the eager youth who clustered about him, the final success of the new elements in popular education-industrial art and manual training — are more largely due than to any other single influence.

Although, during a century of progress, sporadic efforts were made in various localities to introduce the teaching of drawing in schools there was no permanent or general success. It was not till the system of public schools had become general, and the experiment of teaching the same thing at the same time, to a large number of pupils, had been proved feasible, that the time was ripe for the general introduction of industrial drawing and of manual training. Before this the teaching of drawing had been a personal matter between pupil and teacher, and no conception that it was possible to teach the elements of drawing to large classes at once had dawned upon educators.

The so-called "farm schools," which had a certain vogue in the earlier years of the present century, had proved failures as might easily have been foreseen, since it was not

1 Name changed by act of legislature, in 1877, to "The Worcester polytechnic institute."

found feasible to work young men for remuneration so constantly, as was requisite to make them self-supporting as well as school-supporting, while taxing them with the mental work essential to their obtaining anything that would merit the name of an education.

A tendency towards something of this impossible nature is still occasionally manifested by the over-zealous advocates of industrial training, pure and simple, but it is to be hoped that the "farm schools" experience will suffice to restrain the present movement from like disaster. Elementary training in industrial art and in manual training has in these latter years been successfully introduced in many public schools of country and town. "Higher education" in each of these directions, as in all others, must be provided, either by the community or by individual benefactors. It is never, in any form, self-supporting, as the endowed literary and scientific colleges, the schools of technology and the professional schools attached to the universities witness.

In the first annual report made by General John Eaton, commissioner of education, in 1870, there appeared an interesting record of the results attained from an effort to ascertain the direct worth to a workingman of the education given in the common elementary public schools. The concurrence of testimony showing that even this small portion of knowledge and mental training was of real pecuniary value to its recipient, was convincing, leaving no room for question but that the community was amply repaid for all the cost of the common schools, by the increased earning power of their pupils. If this was true of a course of study simply giving the elements of knowledge, the inference is logical, that those forms of education which gave direct capacity for higher grades of productive work must be so much the more valuable. In the progress of the concurrent educational movement of that time, looking to the development on the one hand of industrial facility, and on the other to that of artistic power, the commissioner was greatly interested, especially in the Massachusetts experiment of intro

ducing the study of elementary drawing — essential to both phases of the movement-in all the public schools of the state.

It was with the purpose of recording for the information. of the educators of the country, the progress of this Boston experiment that the preparation of the "Circular of education, No. 2, 1874,"1 was undertaken by the present writer in 1873.

This movement was begun in Boston by the well-known educator, long the city superintendent of schools, the late Hon. J. D. Philbrick, and the late Hon. Charles C. Perkins, -the latter, the leading authority in the city in all matters relating to the fine arts,― in connection with some of their associate members of the city board of education.

Their purpose was to introduce the study of drawing as one of the required studies in the common schools of the city and state.

They were fortunate in securing, in 1870, the services of a leading English art master, the late Walter Smith, who was made "art director," in charge of drawing in the schools of the city and the state.

In this pamphlet, of some 56 pages, brief statements of the desirableness of such elementary art training in our American schools, and of the efforts made by European countries to promote such art training among their people, were given. Especial mention was also made of the English efforts both to develop artistic industries and to extend the teaching of drawing throughout their schools by means of the South Kensington institution. In addition it was sought to give a brief account of such art institutions and collections as were open to the public in the United States; to take an inventory, as it were, of the means at hand for the development of art education in this country. No list of such public art collections existed, and the attempt to secure such a list was undertaken with all the resources of the United States bureau of education. The trivial result

1 Circular of Education. Drawing in the Public Schools. The Relation of Art to Education.-Washington, 1874, pp. 56.